There’s a scene in Martin Scorsese’s The Departed (2006) in which Captain George Ellerby (Alec Baldwin) is asking Colin Sullivan (Matt Damon) about Jimmy Pappas (Paris Karounos), who was arrested for the murder of two gangsters from Providence. Both of them know Pappas, a local Greek restaurateur, was framed for it.
Ellerby: What happened to Jimmy Pappas?
Sullivan: Jimmy had a rough month. Jimmy had a heart attack in jail and then he got himself knifed in Boston City Hospital. I believe it’s been in the papers.
Ellerby: You seem quite happy with that result?
Sullivan: It’s a f—ing result.
Ellerby: Yeah, but cui bono? Who benefits?
Sullivan: Cui gives a s---t? It’s got a freakin’ bow on it.
I thought about this scene over the weekend, as the new playoff format began to go through the take cycle. After the Dodgers and Braves, the top two National League teams, were both eliminated by the two lowest seeds after just four games, and one of the top two American League teams, the Yankees, fell behind, 2–1, in their best-of-five series, fans and media members began asking that same question that Ellerby asked Sullivan: Cui bono? The answer, at least for now, is also the same as it was in the movie, though with far less sinister consequences: It doesn’t really matter.
